In a field of bookbinding, a commercial printing, a card business or a plastic molding such as a cosmetic container, a printing processing treatment called “Foil stamping” is conducted. This treatment is also called “Hot stamp method” and by using a pressure bonding member called a metal stamper, a text or a picture made of a metallic foil is transferred to abase substance surface by heat and pressure, a metallic appearance or an expensive look can be achieved which cannot be expressed merely by common printing. Further, in recent years, a hologram is often attached on, for example, a cash card or a credit card in order to prevent falsification or alteration, or for the security of these cards. Such a hologram used for the prevention of falsification of a card has been formed mainly by employing a technique of foil transferring.
In a transfer foil used for the foil stamping, for example, a protective layer, a transfer material layer and an adhesive layer are provided on a release agent layer formed on a film support made of a resin, in which the transfer material layer is formed by vacuum evaporation or by using an ink. The technique to produce a transfer foil has been improved in accordance with the enlargement of the market of the transfer foil. For example, researches on a transfer foil having a protective layer containing an organic silicon compound and a reactive organic compound in view of improving the durability of a foil image, and on a transfer foil having an electron beam curable adhesive layer by which a stronger protective layer is formed by being irradiated with an electron beam after peeled from the support, have been brought forward (for example, refer to Patent Documents 1 and 2). Since many of these transfer images used for the prevention of falsification or for security of the cards contain a precise pattern, it is required to accurately transfer the image but not to cause a problem such as a burr or missing of the foil. For example, such a requirement has been solved by using a transfer foil incorporating a polymer liquid crystal material in a transfer layer (for example, refer to Patent Documents 3).
On the other hand, in order to conduct foil transfer on a base substance with a simple process, advanced has been a technique to form a resin layer on the surface of a base substance by using toner and to provide a transfer foil on the resin layer. Because synergistic effect can be obtained between an adhesive force fanned by softening or melting of toner and an adhesive force formed by melting of an adhesive layer of a transfer foil via heating, this technology can realize a strong adhesion between a base substance and a foil. Specifically, a convexes image or a design image is formed on a base substance by using toner, followed by heat-pressuring a transfer foil onto the formed toner image, resulting in transferring a foil (for example, refer to Patent Document 4).
Further, there is a technique for transferring a metal foil on a base substance in which a toner is preliminary adhered on a base substance, provided thereon an evaporated foil sheet, hot pressed by an iron, followed by peeling the evaporated foil sheet from the base substance (for example, refer to Patent Document 5). In these foil transfer technique using toner, the foil transfer can be carried out without using a metal pressing member called a press as required in the conventional technique, resulting in reducing necessary time for a foil transfer process or simplifying an apparatus of a foil transfer.
As described above, one of method for forming a foil image on a base substance is to heat and melt a foil transferring face provided by toner and a transfer foil, followed by transferring a foil image on the foil transferring face through adhesion layer.